The Last Night [Short-Story]

Written in Tamil by: C. Saravanakarthikeyan

Translated to English by: Kiruba.H.B 

Embracing a corpse in a dark room - Thirukkural (913)

“A virgin has died”

This was the talk of the whole village. Everyone who had gathered at the tea shops, public toilets, front yards of the houses, cross roads near the well, and those who gathered to play cards in the streets was discussing nothing but this.

“Has Kuppan been informed?”

This was the first question from everyone who had heard the news. Questions like “who is dead?”, “How did they die?” followed only later.

“When is the ritual going to happen?”

“Why ask this question as if you don’t know the answer? As usual it’ll happen tonight”

They murmured in whispers as they attempted to hide the gleaming curiosity in their eyes.

While the women seated around the glass box in which the corpse was kept, were singing oppari, which are traditional Tamil mourning songs sung at funerals, Ramasamy alone sat on a wooden chair facing the corpse with his hand towel shoved on his face somewhere between his nose and  mouth. This said that he had cried so much already and was ready to cry more. Every time someone his own age paid a visit to convey their condolences, his broadened shoulders heaved, indicating the rise of fresh sobs within him.

“Ayya, can we ask Kuppan to come?”

When the temple priest hesitantly approached to ask him this question, he looked directly into his eyes and held the stare for a few seconds before giving him the nod of approval. Those who would’ve expected him to say no, must have felt dejected.

***

The government scheme, Digital India has not reached this undigitized village with less than hundred houses yet. Majority of the villagers belonged to the same caste except for a few who worked as launderers, hair fixers and cutters, sanitary cleaners of the sewage and drainage facilities and those employed at the crematorium to burn the dead bodies.

Ramya, granddaughter of the Panchayat President, Ramasamy, is the one who passed away. For generations, this family had held a position of influence in all the affairs of the town. When the local body elections were announced, he stood for the position of Panchayat President and won the election with no opposing contestants. Their family is the most respected one.

In the village there is only one primary school managed by a teacher and a saththunavu aaya who takes care of the meal distribution in the school. Those who were well to do, sent their kids to the high school located in the nearby village for higher studies. Those kids had to cycle six km every day, though.

Ramya studied 11^th grade at a private school in a nearby town. The Ambassador car which Ramasamy bought ten years ago in a deal, would drop her at the school in the morning and pick her up in the evening. And this awed the villagers.

Ramasamy loved his granddaughter so much that he never denied any of her wishes. She therefore never had a reason to shed tears.

She would buy birthday churidars worth at least a thousand rupees. If a new film gets released, she would watch it on the very first day. And she was the only one to possess a smart phone with a huge touch screen and camera even though everyone in the village owned those old phones. Upon her request, Ramasamy also constructed an attached bathroom with a western toilet for her. Recently, she wished to change the old ambassador car for a new one and Ramasamy was working on it.

When she attained puberty, he invited the whole village and served them a meaty feast. Looking at the grandiose arrangements of the function, the villagers wondered how grand her wedding would be. Now they made uchch noises at the impossibility of that happening.

Ramya was always more attached to her grandfather than she was to her mom. Only after she attained puberty four years ago, she grew close to her mom.

It wasn’t a common practice of the villagers to keep the deceased in a glass freezer box. Velayi kilavi, an old woman who died due to puss infected toes was the first one to be kept in a freezer box to prevent contamination in that village. Her son who was a government employee ordered the freezer box from town exclusively for her. When Ramasamy came across it then, he planned to tell his family to keep him in the glass box after his passing. But tears began to boil inside him at the thought that he had used it for his granddaughter now. He bit his lips to prevent himself from bursting into tears.

Even if his properties don’t add to a lot, Ramya was the only heir of Ramasamy; this is one reason for him to be so attached to her. The other reason is, she was a fatherless child. Her father died from throat cancer when she was three years old. The fact that his son deserted Ramya bothered Ramasamy more than his son’s death itself.

Now Ramya is gone too. At least, his son got to live his life. But Ramya was just a budding flower. Isn’t seventeen too soon for death? Did she really have to leave on the day of the harvest festival, Pongal?

That day, she went along with her friends to watch the new film, Rajini Murugan at the town theatre since they were screening only an old film in the local rustic talkies. When the actor Rajkiran, rose up alive on the screen, she had said to the friend who sat next to her that she was having a heart ache. Her friend who knew her fragile nature, took it as a mere reaction to the scene on the screen. However, she dismissed Ramya’s complaint after consoling her for the sake of it. She only understood the seriousness of her complaint when she fainted later.

Their friends called Ramasamy immediately in a hurry from Ramya’s phone and soon after admitted her in a nearby private hospital as he advised. That hospital built in glass and marbles overbilled the patients that it seemed like that was the only means they had to repay their construction loans. Since it was Pongal, chief doctors were unavailable at the hospital. An intern from the medical college checked her cold heart with his stethoscope and said that she became lifeless a long time ago. Heart attack was the cause, they said. When they questioned the possibility of a heart attack at such a young age, they replied that she must have had issues with her heart for some time then. They didn’t have much else to say.

They took her back in the same ambassador car. Meanwhile, the villagers who heard the news had gathered in the house. Since she was the heir of a wealthy family, the jealousy and awe that rose among the villagers even after she was dead, felt ordinary.

***

Sundaram was working in a hurry from the evening. He also was given in charge of Ramya’s pricy smartphone for the chances of it getting lost is high at a funeral. He attended the calls and gave answers patiently as he continued to work. He would’ve explained the cause of Ramya’s death to at least twenty people over the phone. Ramasamy, who was keeping a check on him, noticed all this.

Six months ago, when Vimala, his niece, asked for Ramya’s hand in marriage for her son Sundaram, Ramasamy didn’t show any interest. “She is just a school going girl; let her finish school, we’ll talk then” he said.

It was a common practice of the villagers to engage their women with men at the age of sixteen to prevent them from marrying anyone outside the family and to keep the wealth flowing within a close-knit community. But Ramasamy didn’t want that for Ramya because Sundaram was an unemployed rogue. Moreover, Vimala’s family wasn’t a wealthy one. Ramasamy intended to look for the best alliance for Ramya but he couldn’t say this straightforwardly to Vimala. But today, he is questioning his decision.

Sundaram even enquired everyone everywhere and eventually managed to get the contact of the workshop where Kuppan worked and contacted him. “It’ll be an hour before he arrives,” he informed.

***

Kuppan is the embracer of the dead. The villagers believed that the souls of virgins would wander unsatiated on earth if they were buried or cremated as virgins. Therefore, the villagers cremated or buried the corpses of virgins only after someone had intercourse with them. This was a centuries-old practice there. This last night of the virgin is similar to the first night of a newly married virgin, they considered.

This duty is inherited by men who belong to a particular family. For the last twenty years, this duty was being performed by Kuppan.

Kuppan is forty years old now. He is a loner with no family and no marriage. This duty of his didn’t allow him to get married. Until his father’s time, the villagers held some respect for this duty. An aspect of godliness was attached to it. A small part of the temple tax was also being paid to their family. Moreover, they were given new Tamil traditional garments like vetti, sattai and a sum as Dakshina after they embrace the dead at funerals. Even though there wasn’t much income from this job, it met the needs of the family till the last generation.

Although Kuppan was a loner, his income from the duty no longer suffice him so he began to work as a welder at a bike workshop in the nearby village. Whatever he earned from performing this duty became a secondary income of sorts. However, he continued to perform the familial duty just for the sake of it. These days, Kuppan is paid only around thousand rupees if he goes to a house to embrace the dead. Since Ramasamy’s is a wealthy family, this time he might get well paid.

Alcohol was Kuppan’s only expense. At times, he would go with his mate Rathnam to have a drink or two. But when he goes to perform his duty, he won't drink. That is one of the mandatory conditions to perform this ritual.

Kuppan was the first member from his family to get educated at school. His remains of some ancestral knowledge made him a natural at school. When he finished his primary schooling, his father wanted to get him admitted at the nearby high school. His father visited Ramasamy who newly began to take charge of village activities after his father’s demise regarding the same.

“If your son gets educated, who then will continue to perform your duties? Answer me.”

Kuppan who tagged along with his father was listening to every word that Ramasamy said with his hand placed on his father’s shoulder. Ramasamy was then the deciding voice in such matters of the village and so he was very stubborn in his decisions.

“If we throw cash, obviously lower caste men will perform this duty. But can we let these lower caste men touch the corpse of our caste women?”

“…”

“This holy ritual is your familial right. How can you give it up?”

“…”

“The village will meet all of your son’s wants and needs. You need not worry. Go on.”

Kuppan’s father couldn’t say anything other than agreeing to his words.

Kuppan often used to wonder how the village took care of him. By doing nothing. At such times, he would think what difference there is between the conditions of lower caste men that Ramasamy talked about the other day and him.

***

Kuppan’s father wanted to get Kuppan married before he began to perform his duties. At the early age of 20, he began looking for a girl to get him married. He and his father didn’t believe much in horoscopes; however, the girl’s families were too keen on it. At that time, a virgin fell dead in the village and Kuppan’s father was forced to call Kuppan to perform his duty.

“Tonight, you must go to perform your duty.” Kuppan was bewildered.

“Why me? What about you?” he asked.

His father hung his head after saying “I can’t”. He realised the true intention behind his father’s want to get him married only then.

Kuppan went to the spot. She was more developed than him; in age and in size. She had attempted suicide by consuming poison due to a family quarrel. Back in those days, post mortem wasn’t performed on dead bodies. The village regulations didn’t permit it. The village panchayat was responsible for resolving all the issues including marital and property inheritance issues. And so, there was no need for the police or court to enter the village premises. If any of the villagers disobeyed village regulations, they were exiled from the village for many years.

Since it was Kuppan’s first time, the father taught him a few tactics. On the first few occasions, he indulged himself in it with a curious and desirous state of mind. But now, even if all that has changed, he had never once felt disgusted to perform this duty.

His father always used to advise him, “It is not a corpse that we give ourselves to. It is God and so while performing it we become one and the same with God. Hence, we become the god Shivan and the one lying there is the goddess Amman. We should not think of anything else while performing this. We should submit ourselves completely.”

And Kuppan did sacrifice himself completely. Not one or two. seventeen virgins altogether. seventeen Ammans. Each Amman was of a different kind. Kuppan, even now, can identify each one of them from the other. Ramya is the eighteenth.

But Kuppan has never known the heat arising from a woman who breathed; the thirst of their wants; their arousing movements; their mourning noises and the pulse that they transfer over to us when we hold them. Every attempt he made to envision them has only ended in a failure. He would yearn for it to happen to him. All this yearning made him hate the night time.

In his village and in the nearby village where he goes to work, he looked for sex workers but found none. And he didn’t have enough money to go look for them in nearby towns.

He often replays the advice that his father gave him. “Some random old man has said that sleeping with a sex worker after paying her is the same as sleeping with a corpse. Paavam! That guy must have told it out of ignorance, let us just forgive him. His saying is not a disrespect to people like us who embrace the dead. It only shames those women who die as virgins. He shouldn’t have compared the gods to women who sell their bodies.”

Kuppan had a different understanding of that advice, though. He thought that the sex workers must not be compared with the virgins but with men like him who embrace the dead. Afterall, aren’t they both sleeping with others for the money? That is why neither of them can’t get married, as well.

Kuppan trained himself to develop an aversion towards women’s bodies. He imagined that their bodies would stink badly and the heat of those bodies would only cause him discomfort. He assured himself that only when one dies, their impurities get washed away and they transform into pure beings. He was convinced that he, who rarely got the opportunity to be with the angels, was more blessed than men who slept with wicked and evil women. His friend Rathnam, would laugh hilariously every time when Kuppan tells him this.

At one point, he began to believe that he’ll never be able to have sex with women who are alive. He thought that would cause him death. Tears would fall from his eyes every time such a thought crossed his mind.

No one was willing to marry their daughters to Kuppan once he began performing this duty. His financial instability was one reason. And the other reason was the hate they showed for the duty he was performing. Modernity that began to peek into the village also began to mock such practices. The youngsters of the village began to consider this practice barbarous.

The father tried to get him married to a close relative’s daughter. However, the girl rudely said “I’ll hang myself if you get me married to Kuppan. He can then do whatever he wants with my body like he usually does.” That was his last try. Within a few days, he also passed away. Then there was no one to care for him.

“The wants and needs” that Ramasamy mentioned to his father didn’t include marriage he realised. Otherwise, he must have considered an embracer of the dead to be an imbecile, who can’t handle a living woman. Nevertheless, these thoughts never made him angry. For Ramasamy, he only had respect.

***

Seven or eight years back, a dead virgin’s brother who was then settled in a secure job in the city filed a complaint with the police when he got to know about the ritual of embracing the dead. The police arrived at the spot, excavated her body and performed a post mortem on it and made it a huge issue. They investigated Kuppan at the police station. He, however, blatantly refused any such event happening. Later, Ramasamy intervened and silenced the issue by bribing the police. Ever since then, they began to cremate these virgins instead of burying them.

The villagers exiled the family which complained against them from the village. they also decided that they would thereafter regularly inform the police of unusual suicidal deaths and send them for post mortem. Half-heartedly, Ramasamy announced that the ritual of embracing the dead will only be performed on virgins who die of natural causes. Since then, Kuppan couldn’t earn much through performing the ritual. Before, there will be at least one ritual every year. But now, it has reduced to one in two or three years. Modern medicine has brought the natural death rates down.

This didn’t affect Kuppan much because he had another job. His hair greyed and his body began to wither with age slowly.

One year ago, Ramasamy asked Kuppan to meet him and so he went.

“Kuppa, who will take up this duty after you?”

“I don’t know, ayya.”

“Someone must do it, no?”

“But nowadays, this ritual hardly ever happens.”

“So what? We must appoint someone. You are growing old so...”

“…”

“Will you listen to what I have to say?”

“Please, do tell, ayya”

“Adopt someone from a poor family”

“ayya…”

“What?”

“I don’t know how to reply to this sudden proposition, ayya.”

“That’s okay. Take your time. Give me an answer in a week or ten days.”

Kuppan nodded hesitantly.

“Will Thaenappan’s son be apt for it? He has lots of debt as he couldn’t harvest much from his fields. This might help his family and could also benefit us.”

“Ayya, is he not going to school though?”

“I’ll take care of that Kuppa. Isn’t the village more important than an individual?”

He placed his hands on Kuppan’s shoulder with force. It reminded him of how he spoke the same way to his father thirty years ago in his youth.

“We shouldn’t let this practice die. Not while I’m still alive.”

Stories told by his father surfaced from his memory. Kuppan’s great grandfather didn’t have kids. It was British rule then. So, the elders of the village raised funds and brought a dancer from Madras. They forced her to stay with his great grandfather for a year until she gave birth to a son. Kuppan and his father are the heirs of that dancer. A few generations before that, the villagers came together and arranged a second marriage to one of his ancestors since he didn’t give birth to any boys but five girls in the first marriage. Similarly, now they want Kuppan to adopt a son.

Kuppan couldn’t agree to the proposition so he sneaked out of the situation. Ramasamy, however, kept reminding him of this every time he came across him.

Last week when he met him at the market, he said “If you can’t raise a son on your own, tell us frankly. The village will raise him. He will be your namesake son.”

Kuppan didn’t reply. His sad laugh was his response. He didn’t want to witness yet another person’s life going to waste just like he did.

***

The news reached him while he was getting ready to leave the workshop after the day’s work in his cycle. When he got the news that it was Ramya, Ramasamy’s granddaughter he felt a little jerk in him. He felt sorry for Ramasamy. Performing such a ritual at the residence of an authority figure saddened him.

He had met her once or twice before on the street and at the festival. A beautiful, fertile woman. The cat hair that grows beside her ears is a rare feature that is found in no other woman of our village, he thought. she would have had a protruded stomach in a few days after her marriage, if she were alive. As he cycled slowly to the village at the nightfall many such thoughts took over him. On his way, he bought all the things required for the ritual- a lemon, a coconut, a banana, camphor, incense sticks, match sticks, viboothi and Kumkum. As soon as he went to the shop, the shopkeeper gave him everything he needed. He didn’t have to ask.

As soon as he entered the house, the exhausted women who were now gossiping after crying all day, stood up immediately and dispersed like their whispers. Kuppan greeted Ramasamy. Ramasamy stared into his eyes as if he was looking for ridicule in it. he couldn’t see much in the dim lamp lit room. He simply acknowledged with a wave of his hand.

He turned his wrist to take a look at his watch and then said “The priest has told us to perform the ritual only after 9:30 in the night. There’s still some time left. Did you have dinner, Kuppa?”

“I usually don’t eat before performing the ritual, ayya. I’ll have mine after going home.”

Ramasamy didn’t say anything but gestured something with his eyes to his housemates. Including Sundaram, five other men opened the glass box and moved the corpse to the next room and placed her on a korappai, a mat oven out of natural fibres. Sundaram held onto Ramya’s shoulders while moving her to the next room. He noticed that her face was glowing with life unlike her sulking body.

As soon as the men left the room, Ramya’s mother and other women entered the room and decorated him by draping a new saree on her and adorning her with flowers. She must get ready for the last night just like she would get ready for her first night. Smearing her whole body with sandalwood paste was a mandatory custom. This sandalwood paste will rub off on the body of the embracer of the dead during the ritual and will function as evidence for the occurrence of the ritual. Some won’t be satisfied with this and will look for more confirming evidence but somehow the sandal wood smearing tradition has never changed.

The women came out after preparing the dead for the ritual. Ramya’s mother’s eyes were welled with tears. A sister of hers consoled her saying “Why are you crying now? We’re doing this so that Ramya will be able to reach heaven. If you cry now, the gods might get angry.”

Kuppan was standing there quietly as the women left the room. Ramasamy gave him a huge thambulam plate on which new garments, two thousand rupees, were placed along with other things like betel leaves. Kuppan received the plate from him with a bow. Ramsamy gestured everyone to leave and they took their leave after enquiring at what time they should come tomorrow.

Kuppan took the cash from the plate and readied to enter the room as he placed it in his pocket. Ramsamy had left. A thought suddenly occurred to Sundaram, who was standing alone after everyone had left. He looked at Ramya’s cell phone to find it almost fully charged. After he ensured that there was nobody there, he slowly walked out and reached the outside window of the room in which the corpse was kept. He opened the window slightly and placed the camera at the correct angle to capture the corpse.

***

Kuppan entered the room and locked it. Ramya was made to lie on the mat. He kept all the things he brought on one side and greeted her respectfully by lying down completely on the floor next to her legs.

Then he began to do what he usually does in a hurry. He cracked open the coconut and collected the coconut water in a sombu and splashed it across the room. Then he opened the viboothi packets and emptied it onto a plate. He lit the camphor and placed it on top of viboothi. Showing the plate towards Ramya, he circled the plate three times in a clockwise manner and then in an anti-clockwise manner. He kept the plate beneath her legs and then he lit the incense sticks and did the same with it. After that, he inserted those sticks into the banana and placed them on the viboothi plate as well.

He smeared her forehead with viboothi and Kumkum that already looked flaky with the dry sandalwood paste. He also smeared it on his forehead after that. Then he stood up and looked at the corpse for some time. It seemed like her pupils were moving. He laughed at his illusionary mind that searches for life in the dead.

He unbuttoned his shirt and placed it on a nearby chair. He could smell the mild sweaty odour of his body. He pulled up his vetti and tied it around his hips. Then he took a look around the room and reached the switch board to switch off the lights.

***

An hour would have passed before Kuppan came out of the room. His face was completely sweaty. He locked the door from outside and rapidly walked out. He had sandalwood paste all over his face, hands and legs. The whole room was filled with the fragrance, even after he left. Sundaram, the only one to be awake, was the only one who got to smell it.

As soon as they embrace the dead, they’ll leave without talking to anyone just like how the devotees and the possessed act after the spirits of deities leave their body. We must open and take a look into the room only the next day. Mostly, women will be the first ones to open the door.

Sundaram looked around before he went to remove the phone that he planted earlier on the window sill. He hurried into the toilet that was built in the backyard and latched it from inside. the video was still running. He stopped the video and saved it. Since the video was long, it took some time.

He has watched lots of porn videos on his friend’s phone who comes home from town now and then. He always wanted one such phone for himself. When he arrived at the house and saw Ramya’s phone, he planned to keep it for himself. He was sure that his grandfather would not ask him to give it back. Now when he realised that he owns such a rare video, it gave him goosebumps. As soon as the video got saved. He played it.

Ramya was made to lie on the mat. He kept all the things he brought on one side and greeted her respectfully by lying down completely on the floor next to her legs. He cracked open the coconut and collected the coconut water in a sombu and splashed it across the room.

Sundaram fast forwarded it.

He smeared her forehead with viboothi. He also smeared it on his forehead after that. Then he stood up and looked at her corpse for some time and laughed casually. He unbuttoned his shirt and placed it on a nearby chair. He could smell the mild sweaty odour of his body. He pulled up and knotted his vetti. Then he took a look around the room and reached the switch board. That’s it. everything became dark.

Will they perform this ritual only with the lights off! He curiously fast forwarded the whole video and watched it but couldn’t find anything there except for darkness. Towards the end, one or two minutes after Sundaram took the phone was the only part of the video that had enough light in it.

In disappointment, he punched the toilet walls. Gritting his teeth, he switched off the phone and placed it in his pocket. He released the pee that he withheld in his stomach for the last one hour, spitted on the ceramic mug that was kept there and walked out of the toilet without flushing it.

***

The next morning, women opened the room and bathed Ramya and dressed her up. They burnt her as the very first thing in the morning. Ramasamy then signed on the gravedigger’s note and collected her ashes in a jar and came home with a face that still held the imprint of tears in it.

The news only arrived that night. Kuppan had hung himself in his house. Since the door was locked from inside nobody could find him. Since he was a loner, no one looked for him either. When Ratnam, his drinking buddy came around the house at night and got no response, they broke into the house to find him hanging from the ceiling. They couldn’t stand the stink of the corpse it seems. His vetti was drenched in his pee, his sperm and his faeces. Even the sandalwood paste that was smeared all over his body couldn’t overtake the stink in the room, said those who found him there.

He must have committed suicide soon after he returned from performing the ritual, they said. Ramasamy couldn’t comprehend any of this so he asked Sundaram to enquire further into this. Sundaram grew pale as soon as he heard the news. Then, he switched on Ramya’s phone again as if a new thought struck him and played the video from the previous night.

He kept his ears close to the speaker and listened to the audio of the video in full volume and began to shudder in a few minutes. In doubt, he backwinded the video and replayed it again.

He was able to listen to Ramya’s shrill voice that appeared only to disappear in seconds-

“Aioo! Who are you? No! Please don’t. I’m scared. Leave me alone. Aioo!”

***